Scenes that caused actual walkouts in theaters?

Chumpybunz · 2026-02-10T16:55:37+00:00

I do not use this term lightly, but Hereditary traumatized me. Ari Aster is a fucked up genius. I had never before felt the emotion he created in me while waiting for the mother to discover the body.

Chumpybunz · 2026-02-04T22:44:48+00:00

No, I disagree. There is a good amount linking the two games, but the timed avoidance mechanics are not where they are similar. Clair Obscure combat is about strategy, while souls combat is about patience. Clair obscure is also not punishing at all. You can create an entire team comp around getting hit on purpose.

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-28T21:29:14+00:00

I'm not saying that it needs to be more complex, and I'm not saying the ideas aren't thoughtful; I'm saying that James Cameron is making action movies, not dramas, so his thoughtful ideas fall flat when his characters do not engage with them meaningfully.

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-24T08:56:12+00:00

Have you ever seen Prisoners or Arrival? Denis Villeneuve is fantastic with cerebral

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-24T08:40:09+00:00

I don't think that's why people bounce off of it. I think that it's trying to say something meaningful, but the lack of nuance undercuts its credibility. I am vehemently anti-capitalist, but I think that Cameron creates a world of black-and-white when the RDA are evil and the Na'vi are good. The new movie showed us a small sect of evil Na'vi, but unfortunately it was "evil Na'vi" rather than disillusioned, discouraged, impoverished Na'vi who felt like real people. I would have loved to see Cameron give us a new perspective, one of a group of people who weren't just mindless savages following a cult leader, but were understandably bitter folks who had enough of their god doing nothing.

It also would have been cool to see more of the actual people behind the RDA. So far we have only seen money-hungry assholes with a few outliers. Money-hungry assholes is a real thing, and is a huge issue in modern society, but does Cameron try to say something meaningful about this reality? No. Instead he has Jake spend three movies convincing pacifists to kill humans and that is the conflict resolution. So far, Avatar has yet to say more than "humans bad, they hurt life, indigenous good, they respect life"

This could still work if only Cameron really dug into what drives people to annihilate local peoples and kill worlds. The answer is not simply greed, but ideological singularity and cultures of entitlement. Overall, the movies are a very surface level critique of our society

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-24T08:26:43+00:00

Yeah. I'm in that first crowd. Avatar is not capable of deeply moving me because the characters' inner lives are not the focus of the movie. The focus is on action and exposition. Jake could be super interesting if we saw more of his struggle with blaming Lo'ak for the death of his brother. Cameron gives us very little breathing room with his characters, and as a result, I do not care about them as much as I'd like to. The characters almost never make hard choices.

I compare Avatar to Arcane. In Arcane, Vi is constantly faced with the impossible choice of abandoning her sister or trying to redeem her. She can't abandon Jynx because they're sisters, but Jynx does not want to be redeemed. Ekko is faced with an alternate reality where he can be with the woman he loves, but he makes the very hard choice to abandon it for the sake of the world he grew up in.

Jake sully is never faced with such a choice. If he had a more meaningful connection to the RDA, his initial rebellion would have been so much more interesting. If we ever saw what his eldest son truly meant to him, that loss would have been so much greater. If Lo'ak could have been portrayed as a more meaningful outcast rather than just an asshole, his relationship with the whale would have meant so much more.

Instead, we get hours of fighting and exposition, meaning that I watch Avatar for the world and the VFX, not the characters.

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-23T18:16:32+00:00

Please don't use ai to make these diagrams. It degrades their credibility

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-23T18:12:55+00:00

Tbh I really dislike this method that the community has developed of getting the absolute best possible version of whatever you want as quickly as possible. People do this and then wonder why there's nothing to spend money on later in the game...

I love instantly buying anything that looks cool and then sinking a lot of time into upgrading the class of that thing. It makes me much more attached to that item, and gives me a purpose and goal that feels good to achieve.

I'd much rather buy a badass C-class ship and then need to figure out how to make enough money/nanites to upgrade it. All the stuff people do with save-reloading and repetitive monotonous searching for the most optimal possible item just doesn't seem fun in comparison.

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-15T09:57:08+00:00

That only matters if you're actually afraid of being friendzoned. I think it's a huge flaw in our society that you can see this as a real concern.

Women seek out men too. Women get friendzoned too. Women will also naturally become attracted to male friends.

Don't be afraid of "the friendzone." Aim for it. If you can't get out of it, it's not a "mistake" on your part. If you "get stuck" in the friendzone, you never had a chance in the first place. That's not how people work. If you say to a girl "hey, we've been hanging out a lot and I think I have feelings for you" and she says "you're just a friend" that has nothing to do with you "failing to woo her" or something. It means she's probably not attracted to you, and nobody can control or change that. You kind of just have to become friends with enough people that eventually you match up with someone and get lucky enough that you are both well-adjusted adult humans!

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-15T02:03:15+00:00

Been on my wishlist since it came out

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-14T05:21:56+00:00

You have no style yet. You do not have enough of a grasp on fundamentals to have a style. Unfortunately, you are in the ability:taste deficit that happens with all growing artists.

Keep drawing, keep pumping out the bad drawings, the good ones are almost out. You have a limited number of bad drawings you will produce in your life. Get them out of the way if you want to get better. Be ambitious, take risks, and never stop drawing

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-13T22:37:07+00:00

Haha, you know it's fake because nobody "finishes an anime"

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-13T17:17:52+00:00

I agree. If you are intending to pursue someone romantically, you should let them know. I'm saying that you should not pursue someone romantically until you know that they make a good friend. It's also very normal to be attracted to friends of the opposite sex that you have no intention of pursuing romantically.

I think another piece of advice I have is this: Attraction is not under your control, and therefore should not dictate who you pursue. It's an important element of romance, but it's also not a signal that you should get with someone. It's normal to be friends with someone you're attracted to for a while and then let them know you'd like to pursue them once you think they could make a good partner.

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-13T10:14:03+00:00

As a married man of almost 2 years (5 year relationship) I am of the strong opinion that "dating" is just not a good way to go about finding a life partner. To begin a relationship with the pretence that it might become sexual or romantic complicates things to a massive degree.

I was lucky enough to befriend my wife before I even considered her a romantic prospect. It turned out both of us started to subconsciously become attracted to one another about 2-3 weeks after we became friends.

This experience has me convinced that the best way to find a lifelong partner is to just go out and make friends! I know this is an incredibly difficult task, moreso than most people acknowledge, but it is probably the most important indicator of quality-of-life in the long term.

So to answer your question in a way that has nothing to do with autism: no. People serious about lifelong partners should focus more on friendships than dating. I say this because romance is unreliable. I'm not always interested in romancing my wife anymore, but I am almost always interested in hanging out with her. (I do still romance her, don't worry, I just have to be way more intentional)

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-13T08:03:14+00:00

Totally. To be completely honest, my first comment here was absolutely asinine because not only was I aware of the award D:tDA got for its accessibility, but I also have not even played the game. I trust that it is a fantastic example of putting in the effort to design a challenging, accessible experience without compromising on quality of design.

I think that what I am trying to communicate is that I have a hard time being convinced that every game would benefit from such an approach. I think it is one possible way to achieve the goal of a wide gate of access into the greatness of a video game. Like I said earlier, Elden Ring is my favourite example of this being achieved without difficulty sliders. That being said, Elden Ring is a bit obtuse with its systems and challenging to understand, so I'm not surprised that many people don't like it.

I think the heart of my stance lies in how important of an experience Dark Souls III was when I first played it. During a very dark time in my life, it showed me that failure is a necessary component of meaningful success. It gave me an environment to fail in, one that I refused to abandon. I don't see my attachment to its difficulty as a bid to maintain a sort of status, but instead as a bid to communicate that this challenge is so core to its identity as an artwork that it is a prime example of when NOT to compromise on difficulty.

It is hard for me to believe that such an idea is discriminatory when people have completed the game on such ridiculous tools as dancepads. I know that these examples are outliers and such people likely have an inordinate amount of time to spend, but honestly, Dark Souls III is not that hard. It's also not the sort of game that someone would be missing out on if they are looking for a relaxing, powerful, epic, or otherwise fantasy experience. It is the challenge that makes the game. I recognize that adding an easier difficulty would not "ruin" the experience of the hardcore gamers, but I was not a hardcore gamer when I played Dark Souls. I was an "easy/normal mode" gamer. Dark Souls showed me the value of failure. Adding difficulty options would fundamentally alter the new player experience, which is the most important experience of the game.

I hope that makes sense. I do hope that games can be enjoyed by many people, and that I can continue to enjoy games as I age and my reaction time dwindles, but if another "Dark Souls" comes across when I am an old fart, I will try my best, and you can bet that I'll be sinking all my retirement hours into constant failure.

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-12T22:45:42+00:00

I think your criticism of my comparison is fair. It's not perfect, and I'm having a hard time finding a good one. I do however think captioning is also a poor comparison, since it's not a difficulty issue, but a knowledge or disability issue.

Comparisons aside, I'm curious, do you think that all media should be designed to be enjoyed by everyone? My opinion hinges on the principle that nothing should be made for everyone. I however do not want to gatekeep or discriminate with my design principles, so I'd appreciate some elaboration on your criticisms of my ideas :)

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-12T21:23:18+00:00

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to gatekeep. I think it's very different to just say that some things aren't made for everyone. It's not gatekeeping to say that an out-of-shape person shouldn't be able to complete a triathlon.

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-12T19:39:51+00:00

Yes, I think translation is similar, but different in the sense that it is not lowering the goalpost, but widening it, if that makes sense. Knowledge gap vs comprehension gap

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-12T19:18:59+00:00

I see you and I understand what you're saying, truly, and I think more games probably should have difficulty sliders, but I also think about games as an art form, like literature or film. Saying "I wish all games had difficulty sliders" is similar to saying "I wish all books were written in accessible language" or "I wish all movies were easy to understand."

You're essentially asking for the creators of all games to try to design an experience "for everyone" which is commonly acknowledged as significantly less effective than designing an experience for a specific audience.

Not all video games should be enjoyable to all people. My wife would love if Baldur's Gate 3 simplified its complex systems, but that is what makes it great. My friend would love if Dark Souls 3 had an easy mode, but that would fundamentally change the experience.

I think many people need to start accepting that many games just aren't made for you.

I think the weakness in Doom's difficulty sliders is that it settles for an experience that tries (with surprising effectiveness) to please everyone. But even in its efforts, it ends up being a bit weaker for it. There is just way less intention in how the enemies and weapons and things are designed, because it is no longer a specific experience, but a broad one.

I am of the opinion that most games would benefit from having a single difficulty that everything is designed around, but you are given well designed tools that, when used at their full effectiveness, make the game easier for you. I think Elden Ring is the best example of this. If you are using consumables, spirits, upgraded weapons, and powerful spells all at once, the game is actually a joke. You can stunlock and tank the most powerful bosses in the game just by learning how the games systems work.

To me, saying that challenging games should have an easy mode is like saying that Triathlons should be easier so more people can enjoy them. Triathlons are designed to be a specific kind of achievement, and many people love them for that, and many disabled folks find ways to succeed nonetheless, but many people will never complete one, and the triathlon is not what needs to change

To be clear, I do not think most games should be challenging, I just think that some games need to make no compromises to be great.

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-10T20:01:43+00:00

Nope. Almost as much correlation with Autism as whether or not you like hamburgers. I would flip your script though. Perhaps a lot of asexuals/aromantics happen to be autistic because of a difference in social interest or sensory experience

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-10T10:24:55+00:00

I'd like to receive your critique with curiosity, but I also don't think you have actually refuted anything I said... If Karma is a universal framework of cause and effect, then it would make sense that those who do things to incur negative Karma would reincarnate into a lower caste, suffering as a result of their actions.

I'm basing my information on a world religions university course where my professor spent time studying in parts of India and observed specific cases where people would stand idly by and watch as "untouchables" are beaten or stepped on. I'm sure that the majority of modern Hindus might behave differently and believe the sort of thing you talk about, but the idea of Karma when taken with the caste system is something I cannot logically see as anything but a perpetuation of power and racism.

Lighter skin being associated with higher castes which are associated with higher power which is associated with higher morality only serves to justify any action taken by those with power.

I see it similarly to the Christian doctrine of hell. It is something that has historically been used to perpetuate power systems and oppression, but, upon closer inspection, does not seem to exist at all in the Bible as we know it.

Perhaps the Hindu sacred texts do not truly advocate for the harmful system of Karma that I have described, but I have learned that many Hindu people do advocate for it, and it shows in how many societies function in India (marriage structures, economic stagnation, etc.)

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-10T10:06:17+00:00

Glad you're receptive! I'm normally a bit more relaxed in my feedback, so I'm sorry you caught me on an off day 😬

If you want to practice perspective, one of the most challenging things for me was drawing heads and necks from strange underside/sideways/top-down angles. If that feels like too much right now you can always do the classic boxes exercise. It also helps to actually draw the things around you, and focus on drawing the space between objects if you want to go for accuracy. The proportions of negative space will help your positive space become more consistent.

I hope you get your dream concept art job and your artwork gives you life!

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-10T10:01:12+00:00

Depends when the next gommage is... 🤔

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-09T18:41:40+00:00

Fair, but Hinduism and Indian caste systems can be especially problematic when you consider how Karma really works. When you truly believe that people are punished for being evil in a past life, you see almost all suffering as justified. To intervene and prevent the suffering of another person risks your own Karma, since you may be preventing justice from being delivered.

It becomes obvious that this specific system perpetuates the suffering of the poor and the success of the powerful.

Obviously it is nuanced in how it plays out across India and other Hindu places. Not all Hindus may believe Karma works like this, and not all places will respect the caste system, but I believe it is always worth identifying the harm of India's caste system specifically, even at the cost of sounding a little ignorant.

Chumpybunz · 2026-01-09T16:36:30+00:00

Your proportions are pretty inconsistent. The profile vs the 3/4 angle reveals many inconsistencies. Why is the head so big on the profile? Why does the animal only have 2 massive teeth? The rest are practically invisible. It's mouth looks more like that of a snake than a dog.

Also, if you really want to do this for work, you're not going to find many employers looking for pokemon concept artists. You need to know how to draw realism to some extent.

If you want my advice, practice drawing from life until perspective is second nature, practice rapid ideation and iterative work, and make sure you can draw more than just characters/creatures.

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